Why Did Oscars Take So Long to Fix Best Picture Flub and 7 Other Questions From Night’s Epic Fail

The Academy’s acccountants at PwC have promised that they are investigating the Oscars envelope flub to determine “how this could have happened.”

In the meantime, we’ve done our own investigation, and found a few answers.

Who gave Warren Beatty the Best Actress envelope instead of the Best Picture envelope?
According to an Oscar stagehand who witnessed the incident, it was PwC balloting leader Brian Cullinan, the senior member of the team that also includes Martha Ruiz.

But if the Best Actress category had already been handed out, why did he still have that envelope to give to Beatty?
The PwC team comes to the Oscars with two complete sets of envelopes. Cullinan had one set in the stage-right wings, from which most of the presenters enter the stage. Ruiz had another set stage left. The Best Actress envelope that presenter Leonardo DiCaprio opened must have come from Ruiz’s stack, leaving the other actress envelope in Cullinan’s stack.

Why didn’t Cullinan realize that he was giving Beatty an envelope to the wrong category?
First, this year’s envelopes were much harder to read than the ones used in previous years, with gold lettering against a red background. Second, Beatty and Dunaway’s entrance to the stage was itself chaotic, according to witnesses.

“Handling Warren and Faye is like herding cats,” the stagehand told TheWrap. During the two-minute commercial before the Best Picture award was to be handed out, Beatty wandered out to the restroom just off the Dolby Theatre stage. A stage manager ran out there to get him, and then took Beatty and Dunaway through the wings, where Cullinan handed Beatty the envelope as he rushed by.

The two presenters reached their place on the stage with “five seconds to spare,” according to staffer.

When the wrong winner was announced, who knew an error had been made?
Cullinan and Ruiz both came to the Oscars with all the winners memorized, and with a standing order to immediately correct any errors that might be made. Presumably, they both knew that “Moonlight” was the real best picture winner as soon as Faye Dunaway said, “La La Land.”

So why didn’t they step in and correct the error immediately?
Good question. According to the Oscar stagehand, Cullinan asked a stage manager in the stage-right wings to have lead stage manager Gary Natoli, who is typically stationed stage left, check with Ruiz. But Natoli was in the audience with host Jimmy Kimmel, who was planning to end the show sitting next to his make-believe nemesis Matt Damon. Natoli had to run to the wings to find Ruiz and confirm with her that “Moonlight” was indeed the winner.

Natoli then went onstage, took the envelope from “La La Land” producer Jordan Horowitz and confirmed that it was indeed the wrong envelope. More than two minutes had elapsed, and two of the “La La Land” producers had already made acceptance speeches.

Is it true that Cullinan was tweeting star photos during the Oscars?
Well, you wouldn’t know it from his Twitter account currently, because its tweets end after Sunday afternoon. But at least one screencap has survived of an Emma Stone photo tweeted by Cullinan, and other Twitter users have upbraided him for what they described as a series of celebrity tweets during the show.

How long have Cullinan and Ruiz been doing this job?
Ruiz has been working at PwC for about 20 years; this is her third year as a leader of the Oscar balloting team. Cullinan has been working for the company for more than 30 years, and has been one of the leaders of the Oscar team for four years.

The seven years of combined experience is small for PwC, whose balloting leaders typically stay on the job for 10 years or more.

When will PwC complete its investigation?
The company hasn’t released a timeline, though it doesn’t seem too hard to figure out what happened and who was at fault.

Watch video of the mixup inside the ceremony, above.

17 Oscars Stories You Probably Missed in #EnvelopeGate: (Photos)

"La La Land" being announced as the wrong Best Picture Winner wasn't the only big news of Oscars night.

Getty Images

Meryl Streep's Dress Drama

On Friday, Karl Lagerfeld told media that Meryl Streep canceled the dress he was making for her because she found someone "who will pay" her to wear his dress (Chanel doesn't pay celebrities to wear the clothes).

The following day, the actress issued a statement denying his allegations, saying Lagerfeld "defamed" her to "overwhelm my appearance at the Oscars."

Getty Images

The Records That Fell

Sunday was a historic night for the Oscars -- For example, Damien Chazelle became the youngest Best Director winner ever for "La La Land," and Viola Davis ("Fences") became the first black actor to win three major acting awards -- the Tony, Emmy and Oscar.

Getty Images

Jimmy Kimmel's "Lion King" Moment With Sunny Pawar

"Lion" star Sunny Pawar is probably the cutest thing to hit the Oscars, and during the show, host Jimmy Kimmel picked up Pawar and held him up to recreate "The Lion King" moment.

Twitter

Jimmy Kimmel had Candy Fall From the Ceiling

No homemade sandwiches this year -- when Kimmel noted that none of the stars in attendance had candy, he called a special air-drop of candy.

"If you close your eyes and wish very hard," Kimmel said. "Little bags of Red Vines and Junior Mints will appear from the sky raining down on you."

“I’m sorry I’m not with you tonight,” he continued. “My absence is out of respect for the the people of my country and those of the other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S.”

Getty Images

"O.J.: Made in America" Is Longest Winning Movie Ever

“O.J.: Made in America” took home the Oscar in the Best Documentary Feature category — it is now the longest ever film to win an Oscar.

Previous record-holder was the then-Soviet Union film "War and Peace" which ran at 431 minutes. "Made in America" clocks in at 467 minutes.

Bridges, who played a grizzled Texas ranger in “Hell of High Water,” won a Best Actor award for “Crazy Heart” in 2009. This was the first nomination for Ali, who played drug dealer and father figure Juan in “Moonlight.”

As Ali passed Bridges on his way onstage to accept the award, Bridges reached out and patted him on the arm. Ali stopped, turned, and shook hands with the seven-times nominated veteran.

Getty Images

"Hidden Fences" Flub Resurfaces

Fictional Best Picture contender “Hidden Fences” popped up at the Oscars after first showing up at the Golden Globes. This time, it was People Magazine editor and host of ABC's red carpet pre-show Jess Cagle who said it.

Steve Pond, awards editor at TheWrap, is also author of the L.A. Times bestseller The Big Show. He has been covering entertainment for more than two decades, and is the industry's most knowledgeable Academy Awards prognosticator.